More Than Partners, More Than Friends
by Kate Taylor
Summary: A difficult case brings Elliot and Olivia closer than they've ever been before and evenetually leads them into a dangerous hostage situation.


Disclaimer: The characters in this story are not my own but are the property of Wolf Productions and NBC.

Rated: PG

Summery: A difficult case brings Elliot and Olivia closer than they've ever been before and evenetually leads them into a dangerous hostage situation.

**--- More Than Partners, More Than Friends ---**

Friday, April 9th, 5:28 PM

Rain fell steadily on the streets of Manhattan as Olivia Benson pulled up to the large group of police vehicles partially blocking the street. It was an upscale neighborhood, one you might find pictured in a magazine. Only those who were well off lived here and every lawn was perfect. But the red and blue flashing lights cast a shadow over all of that and the distant sound of rumbling thunder only served to prove that even here, it rained.

Olivia stepped out of the car to be met by John Munch.

"Where's Elliot?" She asked, walking briskly toward the house, police were now swarmed around.

"He's already inside but he's waiting on you to go upstairs." Munch informed her before Don Cragen met them at the door.

"Olivia, Derrick's up there with a gun to his uncle's head. I just need you and Elliot to talk him out of it and try to end this with as least bloodshed as possible.

Olivia nodded.

"Shouldn't we have called in a negotiator?"

Cragen shook his head.

"There's no time and besides, you and Elliot were the detectives assigned to this case. He _knows_ you and Elliot."

Olivia acknowledged that she understood and stepped inside.

"Where's El?"

"Right here, Liv," She found him standing at the bottom of the stair case.

"How'd Derrick find out it was his uncle?" She asked her partner and Elliot shrugged.

"I don't know. He must have put something together. He's too anxious to think clearly about what he's doing, and too angry to care. We've got to talk him out of it fast."

Olivia nodded, "Let's do it."

"Ready?" Elliot looked to their captain.

"Ready." Cragen acknowledged as he motioned to the officers to get into place.

"We're right behind you." Fin reminded Elliot and Olivia as they began to make their way upstairs.

-----------------------------

Monday, April 5th, 2:15 PM

"We got any leads in the Modell case yet?" Cragen asked while pouring himself a cup of coffee, what must have been his tenth that day.

"Don't know, I've been trying to read this same piece of paper for half an hour now." Olivia muttered as she started over again.

"More coffee?" Cragen offered but he didn't need an answer and he began to pour cups for both of his detectives.

"Homicide just informed us that Thomas Modell, husband of Amy Modell, was murdered just three months ago." Elliot informed Cragen, receiving a surprised look from the latter. "Now, you can't tell me that it's a coincidence that his wife is found duck taped and shot point blank--"

"Let me guess," Cragen cut in. "Her husband was found the same way three months ago."

"Same M.O. on both cases except Amy was sexually assaulted." Olivia replied taking the cup of coffee that Cragen offered her.

"And this time we have DNA right?" He asked.

"Right, but the lab's so backed up right now, even if it does match someone in the system, it could be several days before _we_ know it." Elliot informed him.

"Recanvass the crime scene," Cragen began after a moment of thought. "And while you're at it, requestion anyone who was questioned after Thomas Modell's murder. It's a long shot but homicide might have missed something."

---------------------------

Friday, April 9th, 5:36 PM

"Derrick?" Elliot, now at the top of the steps, called out into the hallway. "It's Elliot Stabler."

There was no answer and Elliot looked at Olivia then back toward the room where Derrick Modell held his uncle hostage.

"We met at the precinct, remember? You wanted us to find your mother's killer."

Derrick had arrived at their precinct on more than one occasion and with how distraught the boy had been, Elliot wasn't surprised to find that he'd taken matters into his own hands. Derrick has been impatient with the pace the detectives were taking and although Elliot had explained that they were doing all they could do, their last encounter had ended sourly. He could only hope that Derrick would listen to him now.

"Look Derrick, no one has to get hurt. Let's talk about this. I want to help you." He waited several moments before turning back toward Cragen.

"I don't think we're going to get anywhere with this kid, captain." The sentence had only just left his mouth when the door in the hallway opened slightly.

"All right, Detective. We'll talk." Olivia noted the shaky sound of the kid's voice. It could work either way to their advantage or not. Derrick Modell might thing twice before pulling the trigger on his uncle or anyone else but possibly, if threatened, he might pull it without a thought. Olivia glanced at Elliot and could see in her partner's eyes that he was calculating how to handle the situation.

"No gun and everyone else backs off." Modell ordered through the slightly open door.

"Okay, Derrick. I'm leaving my gun out here." Elliot answered, handing his gun to Cragen but as Olivia moved to do the same, he stopped her, motioning for her to hide it inside her jacket.

"I'm bringing my partner with me, okay, Derrick? The three of us are going to work this out."

When he didn't receive a negative response from Modell, he slowly stepped toward the room, Olivia following behind him.

------------------------------

Thursday, April 8th, 4:22 PM

"Look, Derrick, you need to go home and let us do our job." Elliot ordered gently. "I promise you, we're going to find whoever killed your parents."

Derrick Modell was anxiously pacing the room of the precinct. He merely shook his head at Elliot's words and the look in his eyes had Elliot worried that he might snap at any moment.

"Do you have any family, and friends that you can stay with?"

Modell stopped pacing at the question and glared at Elliot angrily.

"You think that you can just send me off somewhere?"

"That's not what--"

"I don't care if I have to find the man that did it myself," Modell cut him off. "You had your chance. Those "detectives"," He said the word without lack of disdain, "had three months to find out who killed my father but it's taken my mother's death for any of you to take this seriously?" Modell stepped forward to stand just a few inches in front of Elliot.

"Her death is on your conscience."

8:32 PM 

Elliot glanced up at the clock as he sat at his desk in the precinct. The Modell case had had him occupied for days now, he had paperwork to catch up on.

Outside, a light rain fell, causing the only sound to be heard in the room other than the sound of his own pen against paper.

His mind drifted to thoughts of his partner. He'd been short with her earlier after Derrick Modell had left and regretted now that he'd allowed her to leave without explaining himself. This case was getting to him. Heck, _work _had been getting to him lately.

"Elliot?" He was surprised to hear her voice and to find her standing just inside the door as though she'd stepped right out of his thoughts.

"Liv. what are you doing here?"

She smiled at his question.

"I thought I'd ask you that... It's 8:30."

He stood and began to pull the papers scattered across his desk into a pile.

"I was getting caught up on some paperwork..." He began. She was at his desk now and she glanced down at the papers he was quickly trying to pull together. She smiled again at the fact that he hadn't gotten beyond half way through the top page. He caught the look on her face and let the papers fall back onto the desk. He shrugged at her, his face displaying a sheepish look.

"... Sort of," He continued. "I was _sort of_ filling out papers. What about you? I thought you had a date or something."

"Well, in order to have a date, you kind of have to have a boyfriend."

Elliot looked surprised. "I thought you were going out with Mike."

"Actually that was two months ago, Elliot." She shook her head. "We broke up two months ago."

They stood in silence for a moment, unsure of what to say next.

"Anyway, I thought you could use some help sort of filling out papers."

He smiled at her.

"Thanks, but I already have plans for dinner with someone."

She was shocked but quickly tried to cover up the look of surprise on her face but he didn't miss it in her eyes. It had only been recently that she'd felt a different kind of draw to her partner and judging by the awkwardness they'd felt around each other of late, she'd thought that he'd felt it too. Now she wondered inwardly, if she was too late.

"Actually... with you." He cut into her thoughts before she'd had time to think of what to say. "How's Chinese sound?"

She was speechless for a moment before quickly pulling herself back together. She smiled

"Sounds great."

He only pulled his eyes away from hers at the sound of his cell phone ringing.

"Just a second." He said before taking the call and she busied herself with getting a few things out of her own desk. A moment later, he was back and Olivia could clearly tell that he was upset.

"What's wrong?"

"It's Lizzy, she fell off of her bike and broke her arm a couple of hours ago. Kathy just got around to calling me now." He replied referring to his ex-wife and Olivia knew that things hadn't been good between them since the divorce. She grabbed his jacket and handed it to him, her face filled with concern.

"Will you be all right? Do you need me to come?"

He smiled gratefully at her concern and took the jacket.

"No, I'll be fine." He assured her.

"Okay," She nodded. He didn't miss the disappointment in her eyes. "Well, I guess I'll see you in the morning then." She said before turning away toward her desk.

She stopped when she felt his hand on her shoulder. When she turned back, his eyes displayed something she'd never seen in them before.

"Liv..." He was struggling for words but they deserted him at the moment. "Thanks... thanks for being here tonight."

Time seemed to stand still just then. She didn't want him to leave and he didn't want to go. He'd been arguing with himself lately. They were partners. How could it ever work? But all of those arguments seemed weak now and he found himself leaning into her as he brought his lips to hers.

She was only half surprised by her own reaction of not pulling away but pulling him closer. It wasn't passionate or lustful, it was sweet and just the way she'd imagined it would be.

His cell phone rang again and he reluctantly pulled away from her.

"I've got to go."

She nodded, though she still was holding onto him.

"Call me when you know how she's doing." She finally replied stepping away from him and it was his turn to nod.

"I will."

---------------------------

Friday, April 9th, 5:39 PM

Elliot kept his hands raised in the air to indicate that he didn't have a weapon as he stepped through the doorway and into the room.

Back on the steps, out of view, Cragen turned toward Fin.

"You and John tell the rest of the men to stay where they are and to not move unless I say so, clear?"

"Clear, captain." Fin replied before heading down the stairs.

"Let's just hope this works out like we planned it." Cragen said aloud to no one as he watched both of his detectives disappear into the room, the door clamping shut behind them.

Olivia quickly accessed the situation. Brian Modell sat on a chair, his hands tied behind his back. Derrick kept his gun trained on his uncle but his eyes on the detectives.

"All right, Derrick. let's not do anything without thinking this through." She watched as Elliot tried to reason with the distraught seventeen-year-old. "Let's just talk about this."

"What's there to talk about?" Modell demanded angrily. "He killed my parents." He pointed his weapon forcefully in his uncle's direction. " And now I'm going to kill him."

"Look, Derrick. It's not going to bring them back but it _will_ destroy your life." Elliot still kept his hands raised in the air, hoping silently that his words were getting through. The fact that Modell relaxed his hold on the gun, suggested that they were.

"Derrick, I promise you that your Uncle isn't going to get away with this. We have all he proof we need to punish him to the fullest extent of the law."

"Yeah, well how can you be so sure? How can _I_ be sure?" Modell demanded though Olivia detected reason in his voice that hadn't been there only moments before.

"You have my word."

---------------------------

Friday, April 9th, 4:05 PM

Olivia tried to rub the sleep from her eyes to no avail. They'd been working on the Modell case with little to no sleep for several days now. Out of leads, they were now at a dead end until the results from the DNA came back.

With nothing able to be done at the moment, Cragen had given them permission to leave work early and Olivia had been glad to take him up on that offer.

"Olivia?" She turned around at the sound of her partner's voice.

"Yeah, El?" She asked as she watched him grab his coat and hand her hers. "Where are we going?"

"Just got a call from the lab. The DNA matched someone in the system. Name's Brian Modell, Thomas Modell's brother."

Olivia gave him a look of surprise.

"What are his priors?"

"Assault...it seems Brian has a bad temper. Novak's already working on the warrant, she'll have it by the time we're there to pick him up."

Olivia nodded.

"Let's go."

"Elliot? Liv?" They both turned around to see Munch walking toward them.

"I did some checking into the financial state of the Modell's and guess who gains control of the money in the unlikely event that both Thomas and Amy Modell die before Derrick reaches the age of twenty-one?"

"Brian Modell." Elliot answered more as a statement than a question. Munch looked shocked at the quick answer.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"I'll explain later," Elliot replied quickly. "Right now I need you to tell Cragen that we're going to need as many men as we can get out at Brian Modell's residence."

Olivia gave her partner a questioning look.

"You think Modell's going to be that a big of a problem?"

"No, not _Brian_ Modell. Derrick's been threatening to do some digging of his own. So, what if he found out it was his uncle who killed his father, raped and murdered his mother all in order to get a hold of his inheritance. What do you think he'll do?"

Olivia didn't need to think about it for longer than a moment.

"Let's get over there."

"Wait," Elliot stopped her. "One of us should check Derrick's home."

Olivia nodded.

"Right. I'll go and meet up with you later."

----------------------------

Friday, April 9th, 5:43 PM 

This doesn't have to end wrongly, Derrick, we can still make this work." Elliot cautiously took a step toward Modell, lowering his arms and holding his hand out.

"Just give me the gun and we can all walk out of here."

Modell stood frozen as though pondering Elliot's words and after a few long moments, he slowly began to lower his gun.

"No, this is a trick." Elliot barely had time to hear Brian Modell scream before the latter launched himself from his seat toward his nephew.

A loud shot cut through the thick silence that had hung in the room only a moment before. A fatal bullet struck Brian Modell almost point blank in the chest. A second shot immediately followed and Elliot felt the bullet slam into his shoulder with an impact that slammed him back against the wall.

Olivia's timing was a mere second late as she reached for the gun hidden in her jacket and pointed it at Modell.

"Drop it!" She heard herself command. Modell's glaring eyes were now on her but his gun was trained on Elliot.

"You shoot me and I'll kill him."

The statement was void of any emotion and any chance they'd had to reason with him seemed gone now. Olivia wasn't willing to take any chances with her partner's life.

"Drop it!" He shouted impatiently at her, tightening his hold on the trigger. She began to relax her hold on the gun as her eyes met Elliot's. His face was contorted in pain as he held onto his shoulder to stop some of the blood flow. Their eyes remained locked on each other as she slowly placed her gun on the ground and the resolved look in Elliot's eyes told her that they were going to find a way out of this.

"Elliot? Olivia?" She turned suddenly toward the door at Cragen's voice. "What's going on in there?"

Outside, Cragen and Fin stood at the door, their guns drawn.Cragen had ordered them not to make any sudden moves until they knew what was going on but the seconds seemed to drag by like hours.

"I told everyone else to stay back!" He heard Modell shout through the door angrily.

"I just need to know if my detectives are all right."

"Their still alive," Was all Modell offered in reply. "But they won't be for long unless you all just back away from the door. Now!"

Inside, Modell cautiously edged over toward Olivia to retrieve the gun laying on the floor. He held his aim on her.

"Tell them you're okay." He ordered.

"We're all right," She lied as she glared at the young man whom she'd, only hours before, felt pity for.

"Let me help my partner." She wouldn't have taken no for an answer but she knew it was best to make Modell feel as though he was in complete control.

"He's fine," He insisted impatiently

All of the words seemed like a blur to Elliot. as he concentrated on merely taking his next breath and trying to stay focused. Blood covered the left side of his shirt as well as the hand he held over the wound. He was very aware of the fact that he was losing a lot of blood.

"Let me help him." Olivia repeated herself. "You let him die and you'll be adding on a second murder charge."

"What's it matter? My life's over anyway." Modell replied his voice now becoming more emotional than angry. Olivia used this as her chance to slowly step over toward Elliot and she was relieved when Modell made no effort to stop her.

She reached him just as he began to sink to the floor and she helped him lay back against the wall. Reaching for the first thing she could find, she pressed it against his shoulder to stop the blood flow. Though he'd already lost a lot of blood, it was clear to her that it was beginning to stop.

Modell began to nervously pace the room, moving the gun around carelessly.

"My life is over." He repeated over and over again as he frantically tried to figure out his next move. Olivia knew there wasn't much time.

"It's doesn't have to be." She tried to reason with him but he turned his gun back on them.

"This is your fault." He held his gun at Elliot. "I told you there was nothing to talk about but you just wouldn't let it go, would you? I killed a man... I killed my uncle." Tears now ran down his face not out of remorse but desperation. Modell stood over the body of his uncle for a moment, before dropping to his knees. Angrily he turned again toward Olivia. "So don't you try and tell me that this doesn't have to be the end." He glared at her.

"They can give you whatever you need." Elliot tried to calm the situation. "Just tell them what you want."

Modell shook his head.

"Nothing can fix this." He stood as he held his aim at them.

"It's over."

His words sounded way to final to Olivia and they were void of any emotion, as were Modell's eyes.

Olivia felt Elliot's hand grab onto hers where she still held it tightly against his left shoulder.

"Liv... I'm sorry... about last night." He said weakly referring to the fact that when he'd called her later that night, she'd suddenly seemed distant and he couldn't help but think that she'd regretted what had happened between them at the precinct. Her refusal to acknowledge it into the next day only seemed to further this idea as well as Elliot's concern. He'd never wanted to jeopardize their friendship.

Olivia took his hand in hers and was relieved to see that the blood flow had stopped. She admitted to herself that she'd felt confused... no, not confused... afraid. She didn't want this to change their relationship as partners but sitting here with him now, with everything hanging so precariously in the balance, she realized that she wasn't afraid of it anymore. She squeezed his hand tightly in her own as unshed tears glistened in her eyes.

"I'm not."

Outside, Cragen thought quickly. He had to get his detectives out of there. Modell wasn't in his right mind. The more time that passed by, the more anxious the kid would become.

"It's been long enough. We've got to get in there." He finally stated out loud to Fin, the words leaving his mouth only a moment before a gunshot broke the stillness.Cragen didn't have to say anything, he and Fin were already rushing to door. Kicking it open, Fin was the first inside to find Derrick Modell lying in a pool of blood, his gun lying next to him. He'd taken his own life.

"Call a bus," Cragen ordered to anyone before leaning down next to Olivia. "How is he?"

"I'll be fine," Elliot answered for her. "_We'll_ be fine,"

Olivia's eyes remained fixed on the lifeless body of Modell only a few feet in front of them. When she'd hear the gunshot, she couldn't help but think it had been aimed for her or Elliot. Now she let go of the breath she hadn't known she'd been holding.

Everything after that was a blur. The ride to the hospital, the long wait through Elliot's surgery, the doctor's news that everything had gone right, that he was awake and wanted to see her.

Now she found herself sitting next to his bed, silence enveloped the room. She didn't know what to say.

"I called your kids. Maureen's bringing them all over." She finally said.

"Thanks, Liv." Between the divorce and his job, Elliot didn't see them as often as he'd like though he hardly wished they'd have to see him this way.

"And don't think I'm not still holding you to do those dinner plans." She feigned a sternness and he smiled at her.

"I hope you like hospital food."

She laughed lightly,"How romantic." He smiled. He always loved to hear her laugh.

"Liv, you're my partner," His face and tone were serious now. "You're my best friend and nothing has to change if you don't want it too. Things happened pretty fast last night. We weren't thinking."

Olivia was silent for a moment as she weighed his words carefully but it only took a moment for her to look into his eyes again. She knew her answer. She'd known it for longer than she'd care to admit.

"You know, I think I like us better when we're not thinking."

He smiled at her answer. He knew that he'd been thinking clearly. That he'd meant every moment of that kiss and now he knew that she felt the same way.

"But let's take it a little slower."

He nodded, "Sounds great."

Olivia stood as Elliot's kids came through the door. She would leave them alone with their father.

"Dinner later, " He reminded her as she stepped away and she smiled.

"Wouldn't miss it."

Kate Taylor

March, 2006


End file.
